GARY HOLBROOK | AUTHOR | WEST LIBERTY KY

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Did Gary and friends create PAINTBALL?

A long long time ago
Body: The invention of paintball could have started in White Oak, Ky.
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Well we won't take credit for the invention of paintball like Mr. Gore did for inventin da internet, but Gary will tell you the true story of "BANG' that we invented as far as we know when we were little kids.

We were in my Grandpa's big red barn as i recall. It was snowin outside, and we were all just thinkin of something we could do in the barn. The idea came up, and i honestly don't remember the one that thought of it, to play a variation of 'Hide and Seek'. The rules we came up with were simple. Two teams, one in the hayloft, and one downstairs. One minute to hide. The command from the team designated "Ready Go". We were like soldiers . You see a member of the other team, you called out their first name and said 'Bang'. They were dead. Catch to this was where you shot them from you had to be able to stick your head thru the opening you shot them from. Also if you called out the wrong first name you were dead. We actually played this game for many years. In fact the last time we got together to play i was out of college and teaching, coaching with a family. The game of 'Bang' apparently had an effect on all of us that were there when we started it that snowy day.

Thru the years many of our friends were treated to the game of 'Bang' when they came to visit. You can decide if we had the makin's of the paintball game that became so popular a few years ago.

Y'all come back now ya hear.

1 comment:

Johnathan Gay said...

Gary:

Cool. When I was a kid we used to hunt one another w/ BB guns in Leslie County's hills.

There were four of us and we were all cousins. Two of us lived in the hills in Leslie County and the other two lived in Boone County. They used to love to come down visit the hicks b/c they were free to shoot everything save glass and eye balls. (Skin, obviously, was a legit target.)

This is sad, but I can't think of any other game I'd rather play right now. We had a blast! Thanks for making me remember.

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